I just switched over from my old personal mail box (PMB) to a new cruisers' mail service at Dockside Solutions at Shilshole Bay Marina in Seattle. Check it out here. I'm new to this cruisers' mail thing, but Dockside uses this cool Drop Box concept for managing incoming items that I can't wait to play with. Combining other services as well, it promises to branch out even further, you just wait!

No, I need to just wait. This wasn't supposed to be an advertisement!

The real reason I'm writing all this is that my friend Angie owns the business and her invitation to attend a wine tasting at her office this past Friday night led to a serendipitous reacquaintance.

[Drat. I have to digress again. Though I have since moved to cheaper climes, Angela and her husband, Scott, were neighbors of mine on G-dock at Shilshole Marina in Seattle. They live with their two kids, Zak and Ellie, and their dog, Fathom, aboard their Formosa 51 Ghost.]

To finally get to the point of this blog entry, the wine tasting turned out to be more of a wine social because it lacked any semblance of blind taste testing, pinky-up discussions of legs, bouquet, or body, and I didn't hear even one person slurp the wine over their tongue. Heck, there wasn't even a spitoon in sight! Fact is, we all just stood around chatting and nibbling and sipping for a couple of hours.

Amidst all the chatting, nibbling, and sipping I was introduced to Ken and Susan Fitzgerald. As we are wont to do, we boaters always end up talking proudly about our boats. I am no exception, so I wantonly described my boat to Ken, not failing to mention her name.

"Oh, Mabrouka," exclaimed Susan. "We know your boat!" As it turned out, with memory organs being much younger and less dilapidated than mine, they very clearly recalled crossing paths with me and Mabrouka a couple of years ago. How DO they DO that?

It turns out that they have good reason. Actually I have the same good reason to remember, but they're just better at it than I am. Their boat has an Arabic name, too: Bint al Khamseen meaning, if my failing memory doesn't fail me yet again, Daughter of the Wind. In fact, Khamseen translates directly to the number 50, but it is also the name of a specific wind in (I think) Lebanon, Ken's country of birth. Anyway, they made the Arabic connection and it stuck long enough to make our actual face-to-face meeting memorable some two years later.

And I am greatly pleased. Not only for the benefit of having Ken and Susan in my acquaintance (Or am I in theirs? What's the protocol?), but for having found another cruising blog to while away my hours with. Check out Bint al Khamseen's blog. Very enjoyable! I aspire to their sense of humor!